In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Dan Iten are joined by Shane Pruitt who serves as the National Next Gen Director for the North American Mission Board (NAMB). In this episode, they discuss the responsibility of ministry leaders to find future leaders under their care and what the process of discipleship looks like in that context. They also discuss how to recognize future leaders in your midst, and what needs to be done in order to call out those whom God has called for full-time ministry leadership.

BEST QUOTES

“God hasn't stopped calling out those to ministry leadership. I think we as current leaders have stopped asking a whole generation to consider if God is calling them.” – Shane Pruitt

“I know young people get told all the time that they are the future of the church and I know what people mean by that. However, that’s not biblically correct because if they'd been bought by the blood of Jesus and are indwelt by the Spirit of God; they are not the future of the church, they are the church right now.” – Shane Pruitt

“If young people can handle Algebra, they can handle some doctrine and theology. Don’t dumb it down for them, raise the bar. They can handle it.” – Shane Pruitt

“Often I see church leaders reactively responding to a leadership void rather than proactively. So if a Youth Pastor leaves, they have to go out and search for another one, instead of asking themselves if God is raising up somebody in their congregation to fill that role.” – Shane Pruitt

“Let young people and young adults start serving. Give them a seat at the table and raise their leadership capacity. I've often found that typically calling will reveal itself in serving.” – Shane Pruitt

“The best thing we can do for those who want to be in ministry leadership is to teach them to walk deeply with Jesus. I often see churches move these people to find out their gifts and talents and once those skills have grown, we see a spike in leaders failing. So many leaders are falling into immorality, burnout, and rejection of their faith because on some level, we’ve helped cultivate gifted and talented people and with those gifts and talents, we end up putting them on stages and platforms that maybe their character and integrity weren’t ready for.” – Shane Pruitt

“So many leaders focus on the depth of your ministry rather than letting the Lord take care of the width and platform of it.” – Shane Pruitt

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Calling Out the Called: Discipling Those Called to Ministry Leadership by Shane Pruitt and Scott Pace

Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders

Understanding A Calling to Ministry Resource with Shane Pruitt & Scott Pace